When Bonham Carter was five, her mother had a serious nervous breakdown, from which it took her three years to recover. Upon her recovery, her experience in therapy led her to become a psychotherapist herself – Bonham Carter now pays her to read her scripts and deliver her opinion of the characters' psychological motivations.[9] Five years after her mother's recovery, her father was diagnosed with acoustic neuroma. He suffered complications during an operation to remove the tumour which led to a stroke that left him half-paralysed and using a wheelchair.[10] With her brothers at college, Bonham Carter was left to help her mother cope. She later studied her father's movements and mannerisms for her role in The Theory of Flight.[11] He died in January 2004.

Career

Early career

Bonham Carter, who has no formal acting training,[12] entered the field winning a national writing contest (1979) and used the money to pay for her entry into the actors' Spotlight directory. She made her professional acting début at the age of 16 in a television commercial. She also had a part in a minor TV film, A Pattern of Roses.

In 1994, Bonham Carter appeared in a dream sequence during the second series of the British sitcom Absolutely Fabulous, as Edina Monsoon's daughter Saffron, who was normally played by Julia Sawalha. Throughout the series, references were made to Saffron's resemblance to Bonham Carter.

Later career

Bonham Carter speaks French fluently, and starred in a 1996 French film Portraits chinois. In August 2001, she was featured in Maxim. She played her second Queen of England when she was cast as Anne Boleyn in the ITV1 mini-series HenryVIII; however, her role was restricted, as she was pregnant with her first child at the time of filming.[15] Bonham Carter was a member of the 2006 Cannes Film Festival jury that unanimously selected The Wind That Shakes the Barley as best film.[16]

In May 2006, Bonham Carter launched her own fashion line, "The Pantaloonies", with swimwear designer Samantha Sage. Their first collection, called Bloomin' Bloomers, is a Victorian style selection of camisoles, mob caps, and bloomers. The duo are now working on Pantaloonies customised jeans, which Bonham Carter describes as "a kind of scrapbook on the bum".[17]

Bonham Carter and Burton have two children together: son Billy Raymond Burton (born October 2003)[48] and daughter Nell Burton (born December 2007).[49] Bonham Carter has stated that her daughter Nell is named after all the "Helens" in her family.[7][49] Bonham Carter told The Daily Telegraph and several other interviewers of her struggles with infertility and the difficulties she had during her pregnancies. She noted that before the conception of her daughter, she and Burton had been trying for a baby for two years and although they conceived naturally, they were considering IVF. On 23 December 2014, Bonham Carter and Burton announced that they had "separated amicably" earlier that year.[50][51]

In August 2008, four of her relatives were killed in a safari bus crash in South Africa,[52] and she was given indefinite leave from filming Terminator Salvation, returning later to complete filming.[53] In early October 2008, it was reported that Bonham Carter had become a patron of the charity Action Duchenne, the national charity established to support parents and sufferers of Duchenne muscular dystrophy.[54]

In the media

Bonham Carter is known for her unconventional and eccentric sense of fashion.[57][58] Despite her often controversial fashion choices, Vanity Fair named her on its 2010 Best-Dressed List[59] and she was selected by Marc Jacobs to be the face of his autumn/winter 2011 advertising campaign.[60] She has cited Vivienne Westwood and Marie Antoinette as her main style influences.[59]

Her maternal grandmother, Baroness Hélène Fould-Springer, was from an upper class Jewish family; she was the daughter of Baron Eugène Fould-Springer (a French banker descended from the Ephrussi family and the Fould dynasty) and Marie Cecile von Springer (whose father was Austrian-born industrialist Baron Gustav von Springer, and whose mother was from the de Koenigswarter family).[4][66][67] Hélène Fould-Springer converted to Catholicism after World War II.[68][69] Hélène's sister was the French philanthropist Liliane de Rothschild (1916–2003), the wife of Baron Élie de Rothschild, of the prominent Rothschild family (who had also married within the von Springer family in the 19th century);[70] Liliane's other sister, Therese Fould-Springer, was the mother of British writer David Pryce-Jones.[66]